Small Arms Ammunition Case
In 1956 the US Army employed several types of cartridge belts for soldiers armed with the M1 Garand, BAR belts for those armed with the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, 3- and 5-cell pockets for those armed with sub-machine guns, a pocket for 15 round M1 Carbine and M2 magazines, and two different pockets for the 30 round magazines, in addition to 2- and 3-cell grenade pouches. The M1956 Small Arms Ammunition case sought to replace all of these with a pair of simple pouches capable of holding a bandoleer of 5 8-round M1 Garand clips, 2 20-round BAR magazines, 4 30-round M1 or M2 carbine magazines, in addition to two grenades each. The equipment came at a time when the M14 Rifle was being tested, and the ammunition pouch was thus also designed to hold 3 20-round M14 magazines. It was also later found to be capable of only holding 3 20-round M16 magazines despite the significant size difference between the magazines. A pouch with dimensions better suited to the 20-round M16 magazines was later produced (See Revisions paragraph below). The cases were issued in pairs and worn at the front of the belt on either side of the buckle. Like all other M1956 equipment they were constructed of heavy canvas. The top flap was closed by means of a metal eyelet and cloth tab closure. Early models featured a steel plate at the front both to maintain rigidity and to protect the ammunition. Two hand grenades of any type in the US arsenal could be attached on either side of each pouch, with the spoon hooked through a web strap and another web strap with snap-closure wrapped around the top. Like other pouches in the system, the ammunition pouches each attached to the web belt with a pair of slide keepers and, uniquely, an adjustable length strap with a closable hook which connected to the rectangular hook on the suspenders, intended to keep the case upright and transfer some of the weight directly to the shoulders.
Read more about this topic: M-1956 Load-Carrying Equipment
Famous quotes containing the words small, arms and/or case:
“Y’know, George, I feel that in a small way we’re doing something important. It’s satisfying a fundamental urge. It’s deep in the race for a man to want his own roof and walls and fireplace. And we’re helping him get those things in our shabby little office.”
—Frances Goodrich (1891–1984)
“Ambivalence reaches the level of schizophrenia in our treatment of violence among the young. Parents do not encourage violence, but neither do they take up arms against the industries which encourage it. Parents hide their eyes from the books and comics, slasher films, videos and lyrics which form the texture of an adolescent culture. While all successful societies have inhibited instinct, ours encourages it. Or at least we profess ourselves powerless to interfere with it.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“There is not a more disgusting spectacle under the sun than our subserviency to British criticism. It is disgusting, first, because it is truckling, servile, pusillanimous—secondly, because of its gross irrationality. We know the British to bear us little but ill will—we know that, in no case do they utter unbiased opinions of American books ... we know all this, and yet, day after day, submit our necks to the degrading yoke of the crudest opinion that emanates from the fatherland.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)